Teen charged in theft of Fieri's Lamborghini

ASSOCIATED PRESS

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS | May 2, 2012

SAN RAFAEL — A Northern California teen charged in a drive-by shooting and the theft of a celebrity chef's Lamborghini kept an arsenal that included assault rifles, cellphone-jamming equipment and police gear, authorities said.

The items were stashed at a storage container rented by 17-year-old Max Michael Wade, who now faces a slew of charges including attempted murder, vehicle theft and commercial burglary.

The teen from tony Marin County inadvertently led investigators to the storage facility in Richmond, where they found the two assault rifles and shotgun shells, a San Francisco Police Department uniform and badge and false identification cards for California, Florida and New York, according to court documents obtained by the Marin Independent Journal (http://bit.ly/IHq8rc ).

There, investigators also found a motorcycle and gun linked to an April 13 drive-by shooting at two teenagers in a pickup truck and chef Guy Fieri's yellow 2008 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, Marin sheriff's Detective Greg Garrett said in the documents.

Investigators say they're still looking into how Wade obtained the weapons and police gear and whether he had accomplices in the sophisticated March 2011 car heist at a San Francisco dealership, where police said someone rappelled into the showroom then drove off with the $200,000 convertible.

The case against Wade began to unfold when surveillance video of the Mill Valley shooting suspect showed that he wore a unique motorcycle helmet, according to Garrett's affidavit.

Investigators tracked the helmet purchase to a San Francisco retail store, which provided video of the buyer, whom one of the shooting victims identified as Wade.

After placing him under surveillance, investigators tracked him Saturday to the Richmond storage facility, where they saw him drive out in the Lamborghini.

When Wade returned, they arrested him with a loaded Glock handgun in his waistband and $1,500 and a false driver's license in his wallet, the affidavit said.

Wade, who was charged as an adult Tuesday, is being held on $2 million bail and is due back in court May 10, when he's expected to enter a plea.

"He's only 17, so he is still a child," defense attorney Charles Dresow told the San Francisco Chronicle (http://bit.ly/IHuP45 ) after Tuesday's hearing. "He is entitled to the presumption of innocence."

A phone listing could not be found Wednesday for Wade or any family members, and Dresow declined comment on the teen's personal life.

Randy Wahlstrom, whose nephew was one of the shooting victims, told the Chronicle that the former Redwood High School classmates had a dispute over a girl they both liked. Wade threatened Wahlstrom's nephew after he posted an unflattering comment about Wade on Facebook, the uncle said.

Neither Wahlstrom's nephew nor the teen girl in the truck was seriously hurt in the shooting.